


Denial

by sheismessy_butsheskind



Category: Bandstand - Oberacker/Oberacker & Taylor
Genre: It sort of goes well, M/M, Nick has to take care of him, Wayne gets sick, Wayne is my favorite, can you tell, whump troupe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-14
Updated: 2018-12-14
Packaged: 2019-09-18 09:18:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16992264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sheismessy_butsheskind/pseuds/sheismessy_butsheskind
Summary: Wayne isn’t used to being the one that’s being taken care of and surprise surprise he’s not good at it.Nick isn’t used to being the one that takes care of other people and surprise surprise he’s not good at it. But he’s trying.





	Denial

Wayne woke up at 6am, like always. But this time something was off. He felt stiff and groggy and cold. He never slept well but this feeling was new. As he tried to figure it out he was suddenly confronted with a singular thought, the only explanation he could come up with for how he was feeling... but it couldn’t be accurate. It was impossible he thought. He shrugged it off and made his pot of coffee with 3... 4... 5 scoops of grounds, like always. He sat up waiting for Nick, like always, and like always it never took too long. Nick had just as many problems sleeping as Wayne did, but waking him up was surprisingly equally as hard. Yet somehow, the smell of coffee never failed to get him up in the morning. Nick stumbled into the kitchen around 7am, his eyes half open, his ginger hair tussled ever so slightly from the tossing and turning he did every night. 

“Good morning,” he yawned while reaching into the cabinet for a mug.

“Good morning,” Wayne said hoarsely.

Nick turned to look at him with wide eyes.

“Woah, you sound like you swallowed sandpaper, what happened?”

Wayne cleared his throat, “I’m fine.” He reached for his coffee cup and took another sip.

“That’s not what I asked you...”

Wayne put his mug down but kept his eyes on it, avoiding Nick’s gaze. His hands were shaking as was evident by the coffee rippling in the cup. He could feel Nick’s stare on him and tried to play it off like he was just fidgeting; his hands never sat still, it was one of his tics. Nick wasn’t convinced. 

“You’re sick aren’t you,” Nick speculated.

“From what, I wash my hands a hundred times a day.”

“Well guess what genius, you can get sick other ways.”

Wayne shifted his eyes to finally meet Nicks’. He wasn’t sick, he couldn’t be. He couldn’t even remember the last time he’d been sick. His every waking moment was devoted to not getting sick. Nick turned towards the bathroom and said over his shoulder,

“I’m getting the thermometer.”

Wayne furrowed his brow in confusion. “You have one of those?”

“Of course I do, who do you think I am?”  
Nick called back.

Wayne rolled his eyes and said under his breath, “oh sure you own one of those but God forbid you have more than two forks.”

Nick returned a few moments later presenting the thermometer to Wayne who just started back at it clutching his coffee. 

“Oh come on,” Nick griped, “I washed it three time, WITH soap, it’s fine.”

Wayne didn’t budge.

“Okay look, it’s either this or I’m putting a hand to your forehead which we both know isn’t going to happen so just take the damn thing so we can get this over with...” 

Another beat

“Fine, you’re call.” And with that reached his hand towards Wayne. 

“Okay fine,” Wayne blurted out. 

He took the thermometer from Nick, looked it over cautiously and stuck it in his mouth. Nick crossed his arms as they waited for the results. It didn’t take long for the red line to start moving, and it kept going and going and going... and even when it began to slow it crawled forward just little bit more. Finally he took it back and looked at it.

“100.9” he said matter-of-factly, looking at Wayne. “Okay, back to bed.”

“What...”

“You heard me. Let’s go,” and he gestured towards his bedroom.

“Hold on, where are we going?”

“To bed- I’ve said it three times how sick are you?”

“But why are you pointing to your bedroom?” Wayne almost sounded panicked at the thought of being in Nick’s bed. 

“You think I’m gonna stick you back on the couch when your sick? I’m not that heartless.”

Wayne’s anxiety began to rise thinking about lying in a bed with used sheets and another mans pillow... he was almost convinced that doing that would be the thing to get him sick. And if not, it would definitely get Nick sick and he wasn’t sure he could handle that either.

“Look,” Wayne began, his voice sounding more hoarse the more panicked he got. “If your goal here is to get me to sleep then sticking me in your bed is not the answer. I’m not saying you’re unclean-“

“But you are...”

-“but I’m saying I can’t consciously lay in that bed and feel calm enough to fall asleep, or whatever I’m supposed to do.”

“Wayne, I’ll change the sheets, relax.”

Wayne shook his head; bad idea. He got dizzy and felt the pressure that had built up behind his eyes. It was getting harder for him deny that he was sick. He clutched his coffee again making his knuckles go white and took another small sip to steady himself. Nick was trying really hard to be patient but it wasn’t something he known for. He got short with Wayne and snapped.

“Fine, get back on the couch then, hell lie on the floor if it makes you happy, I just need you horizontal, somewhere. That’s an order lieutenant.”

He walked back to the bathroom and whispered half to himself, “screwy nutcase...”

Wayne forgot that Nick technically out ranked him. It was almost endearing to see Nick try and be nurturing... almost. If it wasn’t so out of character for him Wayne may not have been so testy with him. He took one final sip of coffee and stood up turning to move to the couch. Before he could take a step his vision went fuzzy and black around the edges. He felt incredibly light headed and the room began spinning. He reached out his right hand to grab the counter to steady himself but he felt his legs go weak. Nick came back out just in time to see Wayne swaying back and forth. He rushed forward and wrapped his arms around his waist as he began to sink down, making sure to keep one leg behind him to help steady him out.

“Whoa, whoawhoawhoa. Not so fast.” He was groaning under Wayne’s weight.

“Alright, here we go,” and he stood him back up.

Wayne’s vision came back and the dizziness was replaced with a base drum sized headache. It took him a few seconds to regain his wits and realize what happened.

“Time to lie down big guy. And incase you forgot I’m smaller than you so give a guy a heads up next time, will ya.”

Nick wrapped Wayne’s left arm around his shoulders and kept his right arm around his waist. He slowly walked him over to the couch, stumbling only once. Wayne was still in some shock but quietly apologized.

“Sorry, I didn’t know that was gonna happen...”

“Yeah well... just be careful.”

Nick sat Wayne down and then stood up to face him. He was ready to say something to Wayne about how stubborn he was being but when he saw how pale he was from nearly passing out he softened a little. Wayne put his weight on his elbows and pinched the bridge of his nose to try and alleviate the headache, to no avail.

“Can I get you anything,” Nick asked softly, “some water?”

Wayne didn’t say anything, just slowly nodded his head. Nick walked to the kitchen to fill a glass and returned handing it to Wayne. He could barely get out a “thank you,” and drank nearly all of it. 

“Now,” Nick said, “you are sick. So lie here and fall asleep and don’t... try to get up again.”

Wayne was nervous about the sleeping part but he had no more energy to try and argue with him, so he laid down and pulled his blanket up around his chin. He thought to himself, “well this isn’t going to work...” right before drifting asleep.

~

Wayne’s eyes snapped open. He was groggy and disoriented, not to mention drenched in sweat. He sat up, which made him dizzy again, a feeling he had blissfully forgotten until now. Looking around he saw Nick sitting in a chair facing the couch, reading.

“What time is it?”

Wayne didn’t sound worse, but he didn’t sound better either. His voice was less harsh and raspy, but more breathy and empty. 

“About 4pm,” Nick replied.

Had he slept for nearly nine hours? Without a nightmare? Wayne thought he should get sick more often, if not just to sleep through the night. He quickly dismissed the thought of course. He was going to have to all but boil the clothes he was wearing to get them clean again. Nick spoke again, snapping him out of his trance.

“You hungry? I ran to the store a while ago, I can make you eggs, soup, tea...”

“Tea sounds great.”

“Unlike you,” Nick quipped with a smirk.

Wayne started to laugh which through him into a coughing fit. He kept going and going, he couldn’t catch his breath. If he didn’t think he was sick before he certainly was now. Nick handed him another glass of water from behind the couch which he graciously took and sipped at. A couple of minutes later Nick handed him his tea and said,

“It’s camomile, I hope that’s okay.”

“That’s fine, thank you,” he answered. Almost no sound was coming out at this point. 

Nick chuckled to himself to see how helpless the famous Wayne Wright, schedule master extraordinaire looked right now. He wasn’t laughing out of enjoyment, he was laughing because Wayne looked almost calm? The calmest he’d ever seen him anyway, and that was all Nick ever wanted for him.

“How’s about getting some real food in ya?

Wayne shook his head. The thought of food made him queazy so he passed on it all together.

“Alright, well go back to bed and we’ll try again in the morning. If you need anything I’ll be around so just holler- well you can’t holler so just ah... whistle, or something,” he chuckled. 

Wayne chuckled a little too, finished his tea and laid back down. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to sleep much for a second time, but of course fell asleep almost instantly, except this time with a smile on his face.

**Author's Note:**

> Ugh this took longer to write than I expected. But I hope y’all enjoy. The comments on my last one were so kind!! Thank you all!


End file.
